The Dark Emerald
by Night Ice
Summary: The days have been long and boring for Sonic and the gang since their last adventure. But one night a mysterious echidna who calls herself Equinox shows up. and what's this about and all powerful Dark Emerald? Read to find out. (romance will come later)
1. Who's She?

Sonic zipped through the streets, dashing cars and making sparks fly off the curbs. He screeched to a halt at the very bottom, Tails landed just a moment later.  
  
"Beat you again Tails, even though this time I took every one of those switchbacks down the hill." Sonic laughed while Tails sighed in defeat. The days had been boring and long, with nothing exciting happening after their last adventure. Not that this was a bad thing, but Sonic and Tails were feeling restless.  
  
The sun had just slipped past the horizon and the lights around the city lit up like fireflies. A familiar red figure was walking three block ahead of them...  
  
"Hey! Knuckles!" Sonic yelled, dashing off in a blast of blue.  
  
"Sonic! Wait for me!" Tails said as he flew after him."  
  
Sonic screeched to a halt, inches away from collision. Knuckles stumbled back a little, quite surprised.  
  
"Hey, what's been happening?" Sonic asked, hoping for something to relieve the boredom.  
  
"Well, there have been more rumors around about someone trying to steal the chaos emerald in the city bank... as usual. Getting kinda repetitive, don't ya think?"  
  
"Yeah, no kidding... Tails? What's the matter?" Sonic looked at tails, who had a hand on his chest and was breathing heavily.  
  
"I... I don't know, I just had a weird feeling, kinda like when you get shocked by static electricity... except it was a lot stronger, and inside my chest.. It's gone now though." Tails replied, standing normally now.  
  
"Well that's odd. I wonder if- Oh, hey! I just got it too!" Knuckles jumped at the sensation, like a ball of electricity inside of him. The three stood there for a moment before shrugging. Tails pulled out his own chaos emerald, which had been awarded to him by the city long ago.  
  
"I wonder if it has something to do with this? Oh well, I'd better keep a close eye on my emerald with all these rumors going around." He said, talking to himself more than anything.  
  
As Tails moved to pocket the emerald a loud whooshing sound could be heard. Tails paused and all three looked around, searching for the source of the noise. A dark shape could be seen hovering above them...  
  
An echidna landed just a few yards away. Her fur was jet black, and her hair like tendrils were longer and thinner than Knuckles', so she had them tied back in a ponytail. She wore simple white shorts and a green tube-top. She wore gloves, which were white as well, that were adorned with metal spikes much like Knuckles'. Her purple eyes flashed to the emerald.  
"If you think that's what I'm after, you're wrong..." She said in a silky, somewhat sly voice as Tails made an attempt to shelter his emerald from view..  
"In fact... If you want to save yourselves a lot of pain then you'd best stay on my good side. My name is Equinox." 


	2. The Dark Shards

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles stood for a moment, staring blankly at this sudden arrival. Knuckles spoke.  
  
"So why should we trust you, then?"  
  
"It's quite a story. Do you want to know?" Equinox asked. All three nodded.  
  
"Well, I assume you know about when the chaos and master emeralds came to existence, yes?" They all nodded again. "Well, when the master emerald itself formed it's negative energy was shattered and reflected, casting the bits of energy across the world. If all 6 shards of energy are gathered it will form into the dark emerald, capable of controlling both the chaos emeralds and the master emerald itself. Now, this dark energy sometimes makes itself an uninvited guest in a person's body..." Equinox pause and looked at them, all of their faces in utter shock at the information, especially Knuckles. "Anyways, when I discovered several months ago that something wasn't quite right with me I looked into it and found this information and realized that I housed one of the shards of energy. Signs of it are an unpleasant buzz every so often..." Tails and Knuckles gave each other and uncomfortable glance, "And finally I have discovered that people with shards of energy can track each other, kinda like a mental radar... Do you follow me so far?"  
  
"Wait, do you mean to say that Knuckles and I have these shards of energy in us!?" Tails was worried and excited all at once.  
  
"Ah, yes, that is so... But I just wanted to warn you. I know someone is trying to make the dark emerald. Someone who also has a shard. There are ways of extracting energy. The quick way is excruciatingly painful, the energy being ripped out all at once. The near painless way takes about 6 months though, so whoever is trying to put this thing back together obviously wouldn't wait six months."  
  
"But how do you know someone's trying to make it?" Sonic questioned.  
  
"Because I was attacked by robots which I discovered by looking at their remains would have had no way to track me other than by following an electric signal, the shards produce such signals, much more powerfully than the natural dull current that all living things have." Equinox told him, "I just thought that it is important for you to be on full alert..." She started to turn.  
  
"Hey! You're not leaving now, are you?" Tails shouted, "If you leave we wont have a clue about what to do! You're the one who knows so much about it."  
  
"Well... I suppose so long as I can't pick up anything else, I'll stay and help you out." Equinox said.  
  
Without warning 10 robots with red arms and legs dropped down from the surrounding rooftops, all armed. They aimed their guns at the four, but did not fire.  
  
"The same robots that attacked me!" Equinox exclaimed. "Enough of this." She dashed forward with a speed that surprised Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and shot a fist out at one of the robots, green fire trailing after the fist. The robot's body dented horribly and it fell to pieces. Equinox didn't stop there as she delivered another punch to the next robot, then as she came to the third she made a diving motion, attacking with both fists head on. The robot shattered like glass on contact as Equinox flipped and landed on her feet, but suddenly became aware of the six eyes watching her and turned around to face them.  
  
"Oh, I'll get these last ones." Sonic said. He jumped and used his homing attack, smashing one, two, and the third and final robot. "Come on, let's not hang around here..." he said. The four of them dashed off. 


	3. Incoming!

It only took a few minutes for them to reach the city's edge. After stopping Equinox flew up a several yards and took a look around.  
  
"I don't see anymore robots from here, but we should still be on guard." She said as she descended back to the road. They all stood there for a moment, not quite sure where to go next.  
  
"Let's make for the forest for now." Said Sonic. "At least if anymore robots show up they'll have the disadvantage." Without further ado they all started walking north. Knuckles and Tails were slightly behind. Knuckles whispered to Tails.  
  
"Think we should trust her? For all we know she could be the one trying to put the dark emerald together..."  
  
"But if she was trying to do that why would she have destroyed those robots?" Tails said in an undertone.  
  
"I don't know, but it's all really suspicious..."  
  
They continued walking, and soon found themselves surrounded by vegetation. Equinox stopped. The others also stopped and looked at her.  
  
"Is something wrong?" Sonic asked, just slightly worried.  
  
"I'm feeling something from the east, the same kind of energy that led me to you three... It's either the person who's trying to put the emerald together or someone else who has a shard of it. You two feel it as well, right?" She paused and looked at Knuckles and Tails. They appeared in thought for a moment before they nodded. "Well, should we risk following it?"  
  
"Why not? Whoever it is, I'm not scared." Sonic confidently replied, turning east.  
  
After walking for nearly two hours Sonic sighed and stopped to rest.  
  
"Are you sure about this? You aren't getting some sort of false signal?"  
  
Equinox nodded.  
  
"In fact, it's getting closer, even though we're not moving. They may sense us too. If that be the case, then it's more likely the unknown villain. Anyone else wouldn't know what the signal was, so they would probably ignore it."  
  
"So should we just wait for them to find us, then?" Tails cut in, "We're still in the forest, just incase there are more robots." The others nodded. They stood quietly for who knows how long, watching the trees, the sky, any place the person could come from. Everyone looked up at once as a dull buzz could be heard, kind of like a big fly. It got louder and louder until it was clear that it wasn't a fly at all, but some kind of aircraft. Just moments later a loud, echoing, maniacal laughter rang throughout the trees.  
  
"That voice!" Sonic said, "Oh no, not again..." 


	4. Unwanted Encounter

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails sighed in exasperation as the craft came into view. The horrible laughter continued. An all too familiar voice spoke.  
"So, it's the fox boy and Knuckle-head who have the shards I want? This will be more difficult than I had hoped." Equinox was the only one who seemed slightly surprised when Eggman looked down from his infamous spherical flying machine.  
  
"Are you gonna just give up and go away, or do we have to kick your ass right here?" Knuckles said, glancing up at Eggman. Eggman laughed again.  
  
"You may have been able to get the best of me again and again, but this time my victory is secured. You'll just have to wait and see. At least I know you have the shards, but... Well, well, who might this be?" Eggman looked at Equinox, who took a step back. "Hahaha, Another Echidna, also with a shard? No problem. I just need to find the other two. You'll all know of my scheme soon enough. Farewell!" So without another word the machine's humming grew louder and it shot away, leaving them alone again once more.  
  
"And once more you'll end up looking like an idiot." Sonic said, even though Eggman couldn't hear him.  
  
"Didn't he sound a little confident about it?" Tails asked in a concerned tone.  
  
"No worries, Tails! He always sounds confident." Sonic replied, assured that they would have no trouble in foiling Eggman once again. Equinox looked in t he direction that Eggman flew off and then turned to face Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails.  
  
"I think we should find the other two people before he does. He could take them by complete surprise, and if they're normal humans they might not be so well prepared to defend themselves. And then he'd have three shards of the dark energy."  
  
"Good point," Sonic declared, "Can you sense the other ones?" He looked at Tails, Knuckles, and Equinox.  
  
"Eh, I think there's something coming from the south, but it's moving around really fast... might be something else." Knuckles said, though his expression was unsure.  
  
"Yeah, I'm getting it too." Equinox said, confirming it, "But, judging by the strength of the signal, they're a really long ways away. It would take us a long time to get to them, and judging by the rate at which the signal is going, it might not be inside someone, it might just be the energy traveling around. I'm not picking up on the last one. It might be at either a really high or really low elevation, and- Oh hey! The one that was moving around stopped... We could probably get to it if we hurry. I think it's somewhere around 75 miles south." Sonic stepped up.  
  
"I'm the fastest here, I could go and try to catch up with it, and you guys could follow behind at your own pace. I mean, no offense but if we go at your guys' top speed it could be long gone by the time we're half way there..."  
  
"Sonic is right!" Said Tails, "We'll just catch up. We'd better get a move on." Everyone nodded. They all started running south. Though, within 30 seconds, Sonic was already miles ahead of them.  
  
As soon as they were out of the forest and had a clear view of the area the three of them took off into flight, rising high above the skyscrapers and minimizing all obstacles that might slow them down. The first 15 miles were peaceful, but nothing lasts forever. Tails' ear twitched, he looked to Knuckles and Equinox.  
  
"Do you guys hear something?" They all stopped in midair for a moment, listening intently. Equinox's eyes casually glanced over her shoulder. Hey eyes grew very wide and she gasped, suddenly whipping around and flying right at Tails and Knuckles, knocking them both far to the left as a large blast shot by where they had been just a moment ago.  
  
For a moment Knuckles and Tails were shocked.  
  
"Er... fight or flight?" Tails asked.  
  
"Fight," Equinox answered, "We don't want to lead it to the dark shard."  
  
There were 12 large robots, hovering not 100 feet away.  
  
"I have an idea..." Equinox said, grinning slightly. She interlocked her fingers and turned to the robots. Each one was readying another blast. She whispered softly.  
  
"Night mist..." An aura darker than the deepest night formed around her hands. She moved her wrists apart, so only her fingers were touching, and faced her palms towards the robots. The air rippled slightly as a black mist formed around the robots, leaving them unable to see or detect where anything was. Equinox turned to Knuckles and Tails.  
  
"You guys got anything?"  
  
"Yeah," Said Knuckles. "Let me take care of this." He glided a bit closer to the mist and held his fist in the air, saying.  
  
"Take this!" out of spite. The air crackled with electricity and many bolts of lighting shot through the mist. A moment later the wreckage of several robots fell down to the earth.  
  
"Let's get going," Said Tails, "Just in case you missed any." And so they took off again, going faster than before to make up for lost time. Luckily they saw no robots ahead or behind them, and none could sense that the signal had moved, so hopefully Sonic had caught it. They finally reached the point, and looking down they saw the distinct blue form of Sonic, and near him another form, definitely someone but impossible to tell who form the height they were at. They began their descent to the ground. 


End file.
